The Accountants Took The Fall For That Best Picture Mess-Up
You know that H&R Block is sliding their business card under the door of the offices of the Academy today.
Warren Beatty read the card, Faye Dunaway read the card and saids the words on it, but PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm who tallies up all the Oscar votes, is taking the blame for the biggest awkward shit bomb to hit the Oscars stage since… well… since last year when Stacey Dash broke everyone’s eye rolling muscle.
The only confirmed time that the wrong winner has been called at the Oscars was in 1964 when Sammy Davis Jr. was given the wrong envelope before he announced Best Adaptation or Treatment Score. Before the Oscars last night, those cocky tricks at PwC told HuffPo that they didn’t really have a plan in place if the wrong winner is called, because that’s not something that has happened before. But it happened last night and now PwC has spit out a statement saying that they gave Warren and Faye the wrong envelope.
We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the announcement for Best Picture.
The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.
We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
Why do I have a feeling that PwC’s investigation is going to lead to them discovering backstage footage of Hilary Duff switching out the envelopes right before Warren and Faye went on stage, because she’s still not over her legendary feud with Faye and wanted to finally get revenge!!! Or it was the ghost of Joan Crawford. Either or.
La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, who told Moonlight that they won and shut down Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about the fuck-up, isn’t mad and has been classy about the whole thing. (Note: This may be the first time in history I’ve ever used the word “classy” in a non-sarcastic way. It feels weird.)
Humbled. And once again: congrats to Moonlight. A truly beautiful picture made by some even more beautiful people. https://t.co/sOP1K0EiwW
— Jordan Horowitz (@jehorowitz) February 27, 2017
The same goes for Moonlight’s director Barry Jenkins:
Jordan Horowitz. Wow. I'm slipping slowly into reflection, perspective. Much respect to that dude
— Barry Jenkins (@BandryBarry) February 27, 2017
After the screw up, Warren said backstage that when he opened up the envelope, a wave of confusion took over his pepaw body, because the card read: “Emma Stone, La La Land.” Warren did a double take and showed it to Faye who immediately blurt out “La La Land.” Where oh where was the spirit of Jack Palance to guide Warren Beatty last night? Because Warren needed to know that when in doubt, just say, “And the winner is Marisa Tomei!”
Here’s Faye possibly wearing bedazzled wire hanger earrings at Vanity Fair’s Oscar party and also posing on the Oscars red carpet.